How Not to Lose Customers...

Olivier Blanchard from The Brand Builder Blog has wrote a great post on losing customers. You can achieve it in 10 easy steps.

1. Ignore them.

2. Lie to them.

3. Sell them crap.

4. Don't make things right when you should.

5. Treat them badly.

6. Treat your employees badly.

7. Don't listen to your customers.

8. Stop caring about your customers.

9. Copy your competitors.

10. Convince yourself that anyone gives a flip about you or what you have to say.

Everyone of us has an experiences of being treated badly as a customer, at a local grocery store or when buying a car. For me those 10 steps are the crucial in every job that includes dealing with customers, no matter if you are sales person in the supermarket or marketer at the huge car company or planner at media agency. You have to learn to respect the customers and listen to them. So often, some are tempted by "not giving a ****" attitude, and treating people badly. They probably think that people will come back no matter what. But it can be a problem in the modern world of plenty. People has too many choices today and will rather avoid being ignored. People want to be heard and respected, they want to feel special and they choose brands that make them feel unique.
It makes me think about a car company I used work for, they were immune to listening to consumers' needs. They have chosen to look at the world though the distorted glass of their opinions and beliefs. Result - decreasing marketing share, terrible image, less and less people interested in their cars. And guess what they still keep on not listening!

Tags: Customers, Consumer, Marketing, Communication